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<title>baby i don't have much (but what we have is more than enough) by gingerslapNotion</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28159173">baby i don't have much (but what we have is more than enough)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerslapNotion/pseuds/gingerslapNotion'>gingerslapNotion</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Promare (2019)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, Inspired by Music, M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:07:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,331</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28159173</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerslapNotion/pseuds/gingerslapNotion</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Just take a look! You’re gonna love this,” Rach answered. Meis sighed and looked over his shoulder, expecting to see a bag of those extra spicy barbeque chips everyone knew he liked, or something useless but amusing, like that time Leonix found a bulk package of a thousand kazoos. Instead, his eye went wide.</p><p>Because Rach was holding a whole, intact, acoustic guitar.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gueira/Meis (Promare)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>baby i don't have much (but what we have is more than enough)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I FINALLY FINISHED WRITING A GUEIMEI FIC AND IT ONLY TOOK ME [checks calendar] A YEAR AND A HALF AFTER WATCHING THE GOT DANG MOVIE</p><p>this fic is a holiday gift for GueiMei Thot Headquarters - i love yall so much and all the content you create and i'm glad to finally be able to offer something of my own qwq please enjoy!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Boss! Check out what we found!”</p><p>Meis was helping divide up rations from the recent raid when he heard Rach’s voice behind him.</p><p>“What is it?” he asked, without turning around.</p><p>“Just take a look! You’re gonna love this,” they answered. Meis sighed and looked over his shoulder, expecting to see a bag of those extra spicy barbeque chips everyone knew he liked, or something useless but amusing, like that time Leonix found a bulk package of a thousand kazoos. Instead, his eye went wide.</p><p>Because Rach was holding a whole, intact, acoustic guitar.</p><p>“Holy shit,” he breathed, immediately abandoning his leaderly duties to gawk at the instrument.</p><p>“You used to play guitar, yeah?” Rach asked, handing it over to him.</p><p>“Well, I was a bassist actually, but- wow, it’s in amazin’ condition,” he remarked, inspecting the neck and the strings, “Where in the hell did you find it?”</p><p>“We found it in an empty building alongside the road, hidden behind some wooden boards,” Rach shrugged.</p><p>“Wonder if someone meant to come back for it…” Meis mused, turning it over to find a burn mark on the backside that, upon closer inspection, was actually text that had carefully been etched into the wood.</p><p>“Meis! Whoa, whatcha got there?” Gueira walked up behind them both, resting his head on Meis’ shoulder to peer at the lucky find.</p><p>“‘<em>To everwhos areadin this -</em>’” Meis read the inscription out loud, “‘<em>stash Hattie someplace safe when you done with her. Take care a her like she took care a me. S. Raccoon Hill, Burnin Burnish!</em>’”</p><p>“Guess that explains why we found it where we did,” Rach said.</p><p>“They couldn’t carry it with ‘em anymore, but they couldn’t bear to destroy it either. So they hid it so another Burnish could find it one day…” The guitar suddenly felt incredibly weighty to Meis, like a piece of history. It had belonged to a predecessor of theirs, maybe even had been passed down more than once, before it ended up in his hands.</p><p>He turned it back over, arranging his fingers on the frets, and strummed a single G chord.</p><p>The notes carried out over the sands, causing heads to raise and turn to look in their direction. The attention of every Mad Burnish and civilian in the camp was now on Meis.</p><p>He strummed a few more chords, followed by some scales.</p><p>“It’s even still in tune!” he said incredulously, “well, almost,” he added, tightening one of the strings just a touch more.</p><p>“Meis,” Gueira whispered in his ear, and Meis looked up, now noticing everyone’s eyes watching him, and he suddenly became nervous.</p><p>It wasn’t that he was unused to being in the spotlight, he just had never been alone in it. In his band he’d been a bassist and songwriter, but not a lead singer or frontman. As a leader of Mad Burnish…</p><p>He turned to look at Gueira, still at his side.</p><p>“What do I do?” he whispered, failing to hide his panic. But Gueira only smiled.</p><p>“Easy. Do <a href="https://youtu.be/cRyKCJUXehM">Land Down Under</a>.”</p><p>Meis let out a single loud crack of laughter.</p><p>“Yeah, sure, but you gotta do the intro for me.” Gueira grinned in response, and thumped his chest to the rhythm of the first few beats of the song. Meis began strumming and vocalizing, and after a few bars he began to sing:</p><p>“Buyin’ bread from a man in Brussels / Six foot four, and full of muscles / I said, “Do you speak-a my language?” / Well he just smiled, and gave me a Vegemite sandwich / And he said:”</p><p>“I come from a land down under!” Gueira joined in joyously, “Where beer does flow, and men chunder,”</p><p>“Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?” Meis winked at him, and Gueira responded with a proud blush and a fist over his heart, “You better run, you better take cover!”</p><p>Civilians gathered around as they continued to sing, while the rest of the Mad Burnish went back to distributing rations among the group. After the song ended Meis began taking requests, while a campfire was started and people began eating their meals. The requests were varied, anything from I Want It That Way to Bohemian Rhapsody, Welcome to the Black Parade to Wonderwall. One old timer impressed everyone with his flawless recall of the entirety of We Didn’t Start the Fire, the title of which got a laugh out of everyone. The guitar was passed to a couple other players as well - Rach and a young man named Baruch together sang a song called <a href="https://youtu.be/0AoO-otdfog">Not By Might</a>, encouraging everyone to clap and chant along with them, and an older woman played some songs to entertain the children in the group including The Green Grass Grew All Around and Do Your Ears Hang Low (both of which Gueira sang along to as well, which Meis found absolutely adorable). It was clearly the most spirited anyone in the camp had felt in a long time, the usual tense and tired silences replaced by laughter and song, and by the roaring of the great fire in the center of their encampment, Meis could tell the distraction had done them all some good.</p><p>The campfire began to die down as everyone grew sleepy, and the guitar made its way back to Meis, who continued softly playing a few songs such as Country Roads and If I Had A Hammer without singing as the Mad Burnish distributed blankets and people began to doze off. Once their duties were done the Mad Burnish turned in as well, leaving just Meis, on guard duty for the night, and Gueira, who insisted upon “keeping him company.”</p><p>Meis continued to pluck idly at the strings as Gueira settled in beside him, snuggling close and planting a kiss on his cheek before resting his head on Meis’ shoulder. Though they weren’t necessarily trying to hide their new relationship (with the way the rest of the Mad Burnish had found them after the previous raid had gone awry, kissing and sobbing until both their faces were smeared with tears, how could they?), they had an understanding that their responsibilities came first, and that meant staying focused on the job and not on each other; but with everyone else asleep, they were finally free to stop being leaders for a little while and just be partners.</p><p>“Feel free to nod off, darlin’,” Meis told him, “I’ll be right here when you come to again,”</p><p>“But I wanna stay up <em>with</em> you,” Gueira replied, Meis smiling at hearing the pout in his voice, “If you got to stay up all night with me but I’m asleep and dreamin’ of something that ain’t you I’d feel pretty cheated.”</p><p>“You don’t dream of me? I’m wounded,” Meis joked with a chuckle.</p><p>“‘Course I do! I mean, sometimes. A whole lot of the time. But you know how dreams are!” Gueira answered hastily, “One minute you’re on the back of your amazin’ partner’s sick dirt bike racin’ through the dunes and the next you’re back in high school, freakin’ out ‘cause it’s finals week and there’s a class you can’t remember goin’ to even once!”</p><p>“Didn’t that actually happen to you though?”</p><p>“<em>My point is</em>, fallin’ asleep’s a ninety-nine percent chance I get to be with you. Stayin’ awake’s a guarantee.”</p><p>“Sap.” Meis turned his head to Gueira with a smirk.</p><p>“You love it,” Gueira muttered as their faces grew closer.</p><p>“Yessir I do,”</p><p>Their lips met. The guitar music stopped as Meis dropped his hand from the frets to cup Gueira’s jaw, running a thumb over his warm, freckled cheek. Their mouths move together gently, without urgency or need. Though it was only an illusion, for a moment they felt as if they had all the time in the world.</p><p>“I don’t think I’ll ever be tired of that,” Meis said softly as they parted, touching his forehead to Gueira’s.</p><p>“Lucky me,” Gueira replied, giving Meis one last peck on the lips before resting his head back on Meis’ shoulder. Meis picked up the guitar again, placing a kiss on the top of Gueira’s head, and continued to play.</p><p>They sat in comfortable silence for a while, Meis quietly humming along with his guitar playing as Gueira lazily traced the strokes of Meis’ tattoo. The small campfire flickered in tempo with the music as cinders climbed to the sky and mingled with the brilliant shine of the desert stars.</p><p>“Wait a mo’…” Gueira sat up and faced Meis, who looked back at him with a mischievous half-smile, “Is that… are you playin’ fuckin’ <a href="https://youtu.be/On7uDupP1Ko"><em>Cotton Eye Joe</em></a>!?”</p><p>“Took you long enough to figure it out!” Meis laughed.</p><p>“Gimme a break!” Gueira gave him a light shove, even as he laughed as well. “You were playin’ it all sweet n’ slow, ‘course it took me a sec to get it. Sure takes me back, though,” he sighed.</p><p>“Same here,” Meis said, “Fuckin' high school.”</p><p>“Hey Meis?” Gueira began, leaning against Meis’ side again.</p><p>“Mm?”</p><p>“If you could make a playlist for me, right now, what would you put on it?”</p><p>“Cotton Eye Joe.”</p><p>“‘<em>Sides</em> Cotton Eye Joe,”</p><p>Meis paused to think, the last notes seeming to hang the air.</p><p>“Well…”</p><p>“C’mon, out with it!”</p><p>“It’s a mite embarrassing,”</p><p>“I bet it ain’t,”</p><p>“<a href="https://youtu.be/sGg3QGPzRr0">It’s a showtune</a>.”</p><p>“Promise I won’t laugh or nothin’.” There was another pause; then Meis began to sing:</p><p>“Kiss me too fiercely, hold me too tight / I need help believing you’re with me tonight / My wildest dreamings could not foresee / Lying beside you, with you wanting me…”</p><p>Gueira sat up again, eyes fixed on Meis’ face, watching his lips as they formed the words and the dark flush growing across his cheeks.</p><p>“And just for this moment, as long as you’re mine / I’ve lost all resistance, and crossed some borderline / And if it turns out it’s over too fast / I’ll make every last moment last / As long as you’re mine…”</p><p>“<em>Wow</em>,” Gueira breathed after a moment, “That was… wow. You really feel like that?”</p><p>“Well, yeah.”</p><p>“Wow… I mean, what can I say? I’m yours for as long as you want me, babe.”</p><p>“An’ I’m startin’ to really believe it,” Meis smiled, almost shyly. “Well, what about you? Got any songs for me?”</p><p>“Hmm…” Gueira hummed, “Oh yeah! There’s one I’ve been thinkin’ about recently, it’s <a href="https://youtu.be/skmOrhZf0Jk">that one by X Ambassadors</a> that’s like-” he started drumming a slow, steady beat on his chest, and sang: “Nobody understands you / You ain’t nothin’ they can handle / Every man you put your hands on / You make ‘em feel so goddamn handsome… I mean, I ain’t parleyed with any other men you’ve been with but if they’re out there I’m sure they’d agree with me,” he added with a cheeky grin.</p><p>“Just keep singin’ you dork,” Meis told him as he began to strum along.</p><p>“I feel ooh, so pretty / Whenever you’re around / Ooh, so pretty / Feel ten feet off the ground / You’re so gorgeous / ‘Cause you make me feel gorgeous / Oh, so gorgeous / ‘Cause you <em>make</em> me feel gorgeous… there’s more, but…” he trailed off, suddenly a bit self-conscious.</p><p>“Darlin’, you are <em>thee</em> most beautiful man I ever laid eyes on, you know that right?” Meis told him, angling Gueira’s face with a finger under his chin to look him in the eyes.</p><p>“Well ‘course ya say that, but I mean, talk is cheap. It’s what ya do that really makes me believe it.” Gueira explained. “The way ya hold me, the way ya kiss me, hell even just the way ya look at me, ‘specially when ya don’t think I’m lookin’ at you, all that makes feel like I’m somethin’ real special. An’ I love you for makin’ me feel that way.”</p><p>“Actions speak louder’n words huh? I’ll keep that in mind,” Meis said.</p><p>“Babe, your actions are already loud as thunder,” Gueira told him sweetly, pressing a kiss to the tattoo on his bicep before leaning back against his side.</p><p>Meis went back to strumming, Gueira humming along as he swirled a lock of Meis’ hair around his finger.</p><p>“...We can’t take the guitar with us, y’know.” Gueira spoke up again after a while.</p><p>Meis sighed, silencing the strings. “Yeah I know. Too much of a distraction, tryna keep it safe while we’re runnin’. Better to just leave it behind.”</p><p>“We can have Rach put it back where they found it tomorrow mornin’. At least then it’ll be safe like Raccoon wanted.”</p><p>“It sucks shit though." Meis said bitterly, his hands balling into fists. "It sucks that we can’t just have this one ordinary thing. A fuckin’ musical instrument to keep us goin’ out of our minds.” Gueira took one hand, loosening Meis’ fingers and threading them together with his own.</p><p>“I’ll be your one ordinary thing, babe. I’ll sing Land Down Under and Cotton Eye Joe for you whenever you need.”</p><p>Meis chuckled. “Darlin’, if there’s one thing you ain’t, it’s <em>ordinary</em>.”</p><p>“‘Ppreciate you sayin’ so,” Gueira brought Meis’s hand to his lips, then released it. “Better make good use of Hattie while we still got ‘er. Play me another song.”</p><p>“Anythin’ for you, gorgeous. <a href="https://youtu.be/X1Tj6HZAXH4">I know just the one</a>.”</p><p>Meis strummed a few chords, then began to sing.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Where can I find the city of shining light, in an ordinary world?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>How can I leave a buried treasure behind, in an ordinary world?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The days into years roll by, it’s where that I live until I die…</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ordinary world.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>As Meis played, continuing to hum the melody, he felt his eyes mist over with tears, hot and stinging. But then Gueira snuggled closer to him, sighing contentedly, and as the tears rolled down his cheeks, Meis smiled.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>What would you wish if you saw a shooting star, in an ordinary world?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I’d walk to the end of the earth and afar, in an ordinary world.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Baby I don’t have much, but what we have is more than enough…</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ordinary world.</em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>basically i just tried to fit as much of my gueimei playlist as i could into this one fic lol. also i might try to write a spicy version so look forward to that owo happy holidays!!</p><p>this work is mirrored on <a href="https://pebe1997.wixsite.com/gingerslapnotion/baby-i-dont-have-much">my new fanfic website!</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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